Tech

Want to Improve Your City? There's an App for That

We've all been through it before in one way or another: While spending some time cruising around your community, you spot some unsightly graffiti, a broken manhole cover and a blown-over chain link fence on public property. Or, maybe you find that one traffic light nearby is taking an unreasonably long time to change from red to green.

Whatever the issue is, you feel compelled to call your local government's non-essential civic issues line to get it taken care of. But instead of finding a simple and easy fix to the annoying eyesores plaguing your community, you find that you've plunged headlong into what seems like a mountain of red tape.

Contacting local governments about non-essential civic issues can be such a hassle in some areas that the mere mention of calling up the governmental customer services line can induce a mind-numbing headache. However, a company based in New Haven, Connecticut, is looking to change all of that with a piece of trusty technology — the smartphone.

SeeClickFix is a web application, also available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry, that empowers active citizens with a simple and easy avenue to reach their government about non-essential issues they see within their communities.

"Just take out the SeeClickFix application and snap a photo of the issue," says Ben Berkowitz, founder and CEO of SeeClickFix. The photo and the metadata would then go to the government service in your area.

Mashable spoke with Berkowitz about his company's roots, current innovations and plans to take SeeClickFix all over the world.

Would you use SeeClickFix for problems in your community? Let us know in the comments.

SeeClickFix's Beginnings

Berkowitz says that his inspiration for SeeClickFix came four years ago, straight from his own experience as a citizen of New Haven, Connecticut. In calling City Hall to get graffiti removed from a neighbor's building, he found his experience with the local government to be aggravating — something many city dwellers can probably relate to.

"At one point I was sitting on hold with City Hall," Berkowitz explains. "It flashed to me that my neighbors were probably reporting very similar issues, if not the exact same issue."

The strike came at a fortunate time: Berkowitz had been programming non-profit websites and spent his free time playing around with the Google Maps API. After gathering some friends and spending four hours on a Sunday, Berkowitz built a simple web platform to document non-essential civic issues like potholes, broken lights, graffiti and other annoyances. Within four months, a beta version of SeeClickFix came through the pipeline and the rest of the company began to slowly roll out.

"We have since built custom [city-branded] smartphone applications and a [generic] smartphone application," Berkowitz said. "We've also built out tools for about 80 government clients."

With all of these applications, SeeClickFix now reaches nearly every major city in the United States, as well as select areas internationally (Canada and Australia have been two ready adopters). The most recent custom application is Washington DC311, which tailors SeeClickFix's API directly to funnel into the city's 311 service.

“With this emerging technology, we continue to ensure that the District is a safe and beautiful place for all of our residents and visitors by giving them a tool for real-time collaboration with our government," D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said of the app during its official launch on April 11.

How It Works

So, let's say you're walking along the street and you notice that one of your neighborhood streetlights is burnt out. What next?

When you open the SeeClickFix app and select to submit a request, you're prompted to either take a photo or select a photo from your smartphone's library. Then, you have the opportunity to either automatically locate the issue through your phone's GPS or select the location of the problem that you'd like to see fixed. Include a description with your problem, and then send off your request.

"An email will be sent off to the person or organization responsible for the request," Berkowitz explains. "Or it will be passed in the form of an open data feed, depending on what city you're in."

SeeClickFix has both governmental ties and a "Neighborhood Watch" system, ensuring that even if a local government isn't directly involved with the application, there's someone designated to take the issues up to City Hall. If there's no citizen system in place, SeeClickFix encourages users to develop their own watch area or lobby their government for the application. But many cities have heeded the call — Oakland, California; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Richmond, Virginia have adopted SeeClickFix as their go-to platform to address essential civic complaints.

As of right now, 60% of all issues filtered through SeeClickFix are resolved by the government or Neighborhood Watch group. To gain more users, the company has connections into local news media sites, such as television station and newspaper websites, to promote SeeClickFix to communities.

The Future

Berkowitz says that the biggest discovery SeeClickFix has made within its four years of operation is that there are two types of calls to governments: a request for service and a request for information. Since requests for information make up around 70% of calls, according to Berkowitz, the company is going to launch an informational platform. Only available in a few towns, the company will be rolling out a simple, public Q&A for the local government to put up their most frequently asked questions. Users will be able to access the information through SeeClickFix, making it an easy way to find common governmental information.

"We'll be building out a knowledge base, as well, for governments to be able to easily respond to these kind of questions that come in," Berkowitz adds.

The end goal, in Berkowitz's mind, is universality: "Once citizens get feedback to multiple systems, we can empower them to do lots of things."

And the wisdom of the crowds will make city living that much more convenient.

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is a leading source for news, information and resources for the Connected Generation. Mashable reports on the importance of digital innovation and how it empowers and inspires people around the world. Mashable's record 42 million unique visitors worldwide and 21 million social media followers are one of the most influential and engaged online communities. Founded in 2005, Mashable is headquartered in New York City with an office in San Francisco.